NEWARK, March 27 — Clutching a picture of her family and pausing often to weep, the wife of a man accused of breaking the neck of a Continental Airlines ticket agent testified today that the agent had been choking her husband.

The witness, Victoria Davis, was the first to testify on behalf of John C. Davis Jr., who is on trial in State Superior Court, charged with aggravated assault.

The prosecution rested today after a week of presenting witnesses, several of whom said they saw Mr. Davis, of Fredericksburg, Va., grab the ticket agent, Angelo Sottile, in a bear hug and throw him headfirst onto the floor after a dispute over boarding passes on July 22, 1999. If he is found guilty, Mr. Davis will face up to 10 years in prison.

In response to questioning by Ronald Sampson, one of her husband's lawyers, Mrs. Davis described an evening in which her family of 11 was waiting at a crowded terminal for a flight that was more than two hours late. She said that Mr. Sottile began yelling at the crowd to form one line and told families traveling with children that they could board first. The Davises and their two children lined up, along with her parents, her sister and brother-in-law and their three children, to begin a family vacation to Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

Her father was first in line, she said, and he had four of the children with him. Behind him was her mother, who was in a wheelchair; Mrs. Davis was pushing the wheelchair. When her father gave Mr. Sottile the boarding passes, she said, he told them that they did not have enough passes for their group.

As different family members began arguing with Mr. Sottile over the boarding passes, she said, her daughter, Kayla, who was then 18 months old, ran into the jetway, and she tried to go after her. Mr. Sottile told her she could not go after the child, she testified, and he physically restrained her.

"He put his hands on my chest and told me to get back," she said, using both her hands to demonstrate how she was pushed. "He told me, `You're not getting your daughter.' "

She said she went around him anyway to get to her daughter, who was crying for her mommy. She said that was when her husband approached Mr. Sottile.

"My husband told him, `Don't touch my wife,' " Mrs. Davis said.

Then, she said, she saw Mr. Sottile grab her husband by the neck and begin to choke him, until the two fell onto the floor. She said she saw her husband's feet go up into the air about waist high.

None of the prosecution witnesses said that they had seen Mr. Davis fall to the ground, only that they had seen him throw Mr. Sottile several feet before he landed on his head.

Mrs. Davis's father, Richard Kevin Caldwell, who lives in Iselin, N.J., also took the stand today. He said that he saw Mr. Davis grab Mr. Sottile from behind, and that the two fell down together, with Mr. Sottile's head hitting the floor first and Mr. Davis landing on top of him.

"John got up and walked away," Mr. Caldwell said, adding that airline employees surrounded Mr. Sottile as he lay on the floor.

A third witness, Patricia Stotzer of Hillside, N.J., also said that she saw Mr. Sottile choking Mr. Davis with one hand. But the prosecutor, Leslie Mann, tried to cast doubt on her testimony by noting that in grand jury hearings last year, Ms. Stotzer had said that Mr. Sottile had grabbed Mr. Davis with both hands and that "it didn't look like he was choking him."

Mr. Mann also noted that Ms. Stotzer, who was a city councilwoman in Hillside, N.J., at the time of the incident, had called a newspaper reporter instead of going to the police with her account of what had happened.

My thoughts go to all the gate agents out there who will not fail to identify the scene as your ultimate midsummer nightmare... Chocka-block flight, large group of violent apes with kids running amock and grannies moaning from down below in the weelchair (even though they can walk perfectly well...). And 40 minutes to board all the pax...
The scene could actually be funny in Airplane 3 the sequel, this unfortunately happened for real...

This event happened more than a year ago at EWR. I have talked to eyewitnesses of this incident, and they say that the defense's "claims" are ludicrous. The agent in question never went back to work, as he lost 60% of the movement in his neck and, while not paralyzed, is partially disabled.

The defense "claims" that the agent, who stands 5ft 5, and weighs 150lbs, attacked this customer-a National Guardsman who is 6ft tall and weighs 200lbs. Yet the prosocution has lined up witness after witness after witness-customers and other agents alike-that have said that the agent never touched the customer, and that this customer basically picked up the agent and body slammed him into the ground.

Hopefully, this mutt will get what he deserves-some seious prision time. The truly disgusting thing about all this is that, even though he caused serious injury to this agent, HE is suing CO for damages. I highly doubt he'll ever see a dime.

Yeah I can picture this night pretty clearly. Late flight at crowded EWR. Lots of kids and family stressed out and tired gate aggents. fmaily aggravated about delay, kids complaining, grandparents frustrated, and than this idiot gate aggent is not friendly, not helpful, not understanding of this family's frustration, still plays his power trip and well yeah, there is gonna be a problem.

Its a shame the guy got hurt, but if he had a half a brain or was just a little more understanding he could have been helpful and assisting rather than an SOB. An and SOB on a tough night does not bode well with angry pax.

The real lesson here is never get between a small child and its parent. If my 18 month old took off down a jetway, no one is going to stop me from going after him or her. Although I do not agree with anyone resorting to violence, someone who is preventing me from retreiving my child from what could be a dangerous situation is putting themselves at risk. Knowing that the jetways do not always mate up with the aircraft completely, I would be very nervous that the child could fall to the ground once they arrived at the aircraft entrance. It sounds like the situation was out of control before the child took off, but as soon as a childs safety was in question, all other discussions should have stopped and one of the parents should have been allowed to retrieve the child. Lesson to passengers, keep your hands off airline employees and on your kids. Lesson to airline employees, always remember that a child is the first priority of a parent (or at least should be) and never interfere with that.

Regardless of the stress of the evening and the gate agents somewhat curt actions DOES NOT justify aggrevated assault. There is no excuse for the defendents actions. He deserves a little time in prision to think about what he did to this man and to his family.

Stop drop and roll will not save you in hell. --- seen on a church marque in rural Virginia

hi
are there witnesses (other than the family) who can confirm the version of the 18 months kid running in the jetway?
working at CDG, I know some of us can be a**holes but I can't imagine any agents preventing a mother to retrieve her child in a jetway -if something happened to the kid, it would be airport agents' fault for not having the jetway secured!!!- no way!! let the mother find the kid!!!!
it sounds to me like the family is making up stuff...

The real lesson is: Parents should have control of their kids and not let them run rampant while people are trying to board an aircraft.

If kids were the first priority of the parents in this instance (as they should have been), there would be no alleged "running down the jetways" in the first place.

Frankly, I don't buy this Defense story at all. If the agent DID say "You can't go get your kid", I'd agree that it was not the correct thing to say.

But I don't buy it, and this has all the feeling of revisionist history. I can see it now: The mother weeping as the evil gate agent grabbed her, keeping her from her poor child who was in grave danger... blech. I can almost hear the lawyers coaching from here.

"this idiot gate agent is not friendly, not helpful, not understanding of this family's frustration, still plays his power trip"

"Ha! The CO Ticket Agent got what he deserved"

"Yes, it is a shame that CO bastard is hurt, but come on!"

I am personally offended by such comments. I'm sorry, but no one deserves to have his/her neck broken. No one deserves to be attacked, verbally or physically. People, I doubt any of you were actually there, I doubt any of you have actually listened to the testimony. With that being said, I think it's appropriate to let the jury decide this one, we owe both persons, as a minimum, that much dignity and respect.

If the part about the child running down the jetway and/or the gate agent preventing the mother from getting him is false, then the father should serve time for what he did....no question about that at all. My only point was that if the agent did prevent the mother from getting a child who was running away, I would be hard pressed to push for prison time for the father. A big fine, community service or something of that nature. The real fact here is that the only persons that are in any position to make a good judgement call on this one is the jury, who has heard ALL of the testimony as opposed to the few parts that all of us have gotten from the true and honest press.

A very sad story indeed.
I think that Wannabe summed it up very clearly when we assume that the story is accurrate.
The father went completely out of control and was violent. Violence is never a valid thing (except seft defence of course) and he must take his punishment for that.
It is equally clear to me that the gate agent should never have been a gate agent. Never mind what happens, nobody stops a mother retrieving a runaway 18 months old child. Never! They assist her instead, even if that may have quite serious secondary consequences of disorder to deal with afterwards. 99.9% of all people will know that by instinct.

I know that it is often not an easy job to be a gate agent or flight attendant when people act screwedly. But hell, you are not alone. It is no different from what all other businessmen in different businesses have to deal with. If you are working at a super market or gas station, it is in principle all the same. You must keep the head cool and act in a professional way, even if it takes time and effort, you are late, and you are tired. There is no excuse for not acting sensibly in the way you are educated to do.

A very sad story. And it may happen again... :-(

Best regards, Preben Norholm

Always keep your number of landings equal to your number of take-offs, Preben Norholm

>>When her father gave Mr. Sottile the boarding passes, she said, he told them that they did not have enough passes for their group.

As different family members began arguing with Mr. Sottile over the boarding passes, she said, her daughter, Kayla, who was then 18 months old, ran into the jetway, and she tried to go after her. Mr. Sottile told her she could not go after the child, she testified, and he physically restrained her.

"He put his hands on my chest and told me to get back," she said, using both her hands to demonstrate how she was pushed. "He told me, `You're not getting your daughter.' "<<

Could it be of some security reason? The gate agent wasn't sure if all the boarding passes were in there, so they can't let someone go down the jetway.

This is similar to what happened to me on an AirTran flight. After I got off the segment ATL-MCO, I remembered that I left a couple of things on board the aircraft, so I went back to the gate, but they wouldn't let me go get them(even though I was in seat 1D) because I didn't have my boarding pass(It was on the plane.). I had to wait for an agent to be available to go down and get my stuff.

The defense is full of crap. I've seen what the defendent looks like and what the gate agent looks like. There is no way the gate agent could have taken the defendent.

Now about the child running down the jetway. It's against federal law for anyone to cross a secured area without the proper credentials or under strict supervision. I think the gate agent meant to say, "hold on a second, let me get your kid." I can see with all the yelling, screaming, and comments being exchanged this could be truncated into "you can't get your kid." I seriously doubt he meant that once the kid crossed the threshold the airline was going to kidnap him.

Nope Lowfareair, your comparison of a runaway baby and yourself (teenager according to profile) forgetting stuff is totally irrelevant.
They probably let you wait extra long time to make sure that next time you remember your stuff.
Security reason? Boarding a plane is not a war (even if it sometimes looks like one), and nobody is at a security risk. Boarding passes? They are sorted out when all runaway babies are retrieved.
Any professionally acting gate agent would have made it clear to all the pax that the extra delay caused by the runaway child and gaining control again afterwards was caused by parents who didn't control their kids properly, and that way tell parents that next time they should better control their kids in an airport.
That would be the professional way of teaching lessons, the same way as you learned that you'd better remember your stuff. Just imagine if half of a planeload came rushing back on the plane retrieving forgotten stuff.
Cheers, Preben Norholm

Always keep your number of landings equal to your number of take-offs, Preben Norholm

Preben: the agent was about to let me on, but wouldn't until I produced a boarding pass. When I didn't find it, I said it must be on the plane, and he replied: "I'm sorry, but I can't let you on without a boarding pass". What I left on there was the inflight mag, with my pass stuck in it, and a 'British Airways' hat.

FlyerC_B757; You incensitive bastard!!!!!I've just informend Johan to delete your offensive post. For an imature 13-15 year old who was no there but relying soley on the wifes testimony you sure know alot you stupid moron.

This happened in my area so I know this better since I've been keeping tabs on the trial. There were two gate agents. The other CO gate agent was going to get the kid and Mr Sotile was restraining the woman because she had no clearance to board the plane. While the female CO attendant went to get the child. Mr Sotile was body slammed to the floor as witnessed by a dozen passengers. This poor man has lost 60% of movement in his neck and before ther incident happened he worked two jobs at the CO and the US Post Office sorting mail in order to support hi wife and children. Mr Sotile can only work 6 hrs a day at the post office before his physical ailments overcome him and he has not worked for CO since the incident.

TWAneedsNOhelp. Why don't you get off your high horse and find out that Mr Sotile was doing his job by not allowing unauthorized personel aboard the plane!!!! Thats what his job at CO was you idiot. He was NOT being an SOB. But you are for not even dommmenting or listening to Mr Sotile and the testimony from dozens of witnesses which includes passengers and CO employees. The other gate agent was getting the 18 month old kid and Mr Sotile was preventing unauthorized person/person from entering the plane.

Do you two even think before commenting. You two are a disgrace to forum members who are under 20. I can't belive that even to this day people make ignorant comments like the ones that you to posted above. So tell me do you hate Mr Sotile because he works with the airline you hate instead of like? Or is it something even more?

If you two ever actually have the brains or the balls to have kids I'd like to see what you'll do to the gate agent who is trying to prevent you from boarding the plane because you have NO authorization. Will you be this violent to him/her for doing their job? While the airline does it's job by trying to get your get your kids and get you there safely and satisified in anyway possible. Don't you two have better things to do than to harrass a man who has been seriously hurt and on top of that to have a frivoulous lawsuit at the airline for trying to protect you. Go to any airline or any airport worldwide. They'd do the same. For someome who doesn't know crap about the industry(as far as I can tell from your comments and user profiles) You guys can sure talk alot of BS. I hope that you "hero" is put away for the maximun the law can allow and to make people thing twice about what they do and how they treat employees. If this happened in the Middle East; Mr Davis wouldn't have a prayer and possibly face life or execution for attempted murder.

*Johan please do not delete this post. This is to answer the know it alls who think that it's ok to injure and try to murder someone because you are violating Federal policy. What part of NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONELL ALLOWED ON BOARD don't they quite understand. If they did know about it they would've know that another CO agent was in persuit of the 18 month old. There is absloutley no reason for this monster's actions at all.

The agent was doing his job. Even if the kid ran down the jetway the parent cannot just run after and get him/her. They should have been watching where their kids were running around. As an airline employee, I hope this person gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

THey were both stupid. Why would they argue then assult one another over a simple boarding pass. Just plain nonsense. They both deserves to go to jail. The CO CSR should immediatly get fired and serve some jail time.